SUNSET SOLAR CLIPS
Today’s partial solar eclipse is the last chance to see a partial solar eclipse in Chicago for the next three years.

The partial solar eclipse starts around 4:30 p.m., and will peak about 5:45 p.m. Sunset tonight is 5:57 p.m. so the sun will be very low in the western sky during the partial eclipse.

Weather permitting, the partial eclipse will be visible in the entire United States, except Hawaii and New England.

Unfortunately, cloud cover has moved over most of Illinois. Time will tell if the sun will shine through broken clouds or translucent clouds.

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]]>http://www.arlingtoncardinal.com/2014/10/partial-solar-eclipse-over-chicago-430-pm-start-545-pm-peak/feed/0Lightning Video in Chicago Catches Willis Tower and John Hancock Building Getting Hithttp://www.arlingtoncardinal.com/2014/07/lightning-video-in-chicago-catches-willis-tower-and-john-hancock-building-getting-hit/
http://www.arlingtoncardinal.com/2014/07/lightning-video-in-chicago-catches-willis-tower-and-john-hancock-building-getting-hit/#commentsWed, 02 Jul 2014 20:30:10 +0000http://www.arlingtoncardinal.com/?p=70326Lightning display from Monday night, June 30, 2014. Craig Shimala faced his camera to the east, which shows the city’s tallest building most clearly — the John Hancock Building (left), Trump Tower (center), and Willis Tower (right). Check out the lightning strikes …

It looks like Craig Shimala has a little experience catching storms and lightning in the City of Chicago. In the video below from 2010, the three buildings are clearly shown being struck by lightning simultaneously.

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]]>http://www.arlingtoncardinal.com/2014/07/lightning-video-in-chicago-catches-willis-tower-and-john-hancock-building-getting-hit/feed/0Skywatchers: Night Sky in July Is More than Fireworks; Good Month for Planetshttp://www.arlingtoncardinal.com/2014/07/skywatchers-night-sky-in-july-is-more-than-fireworks-good-month-for-planets/
http://www.arlingtoncardinal.com/2014/07/skywatchers-night-sky-in-july-is-more-than-fireworks-good-month-for-planets/#commentsTue, 01 Jul 2014 15:13:30 +0000http://www.arlingtoncardinal.com/?p=70309Besides a lot of fireworks, the night sky in July is full of planets and then meteors at the end of the month.

Saturn and Mars are visible in the evening and Venus and Mercury can be found before sunrise. At the end of the month, the annual Delta Aquarid peaks with 20 meteors per hour. — Skywatching Guide: http://goo.gl/uETMG9

The night sky of the month from SPACE.COM is available every day by clicking on the Weather Slider Graphic on the front page of The Cardinal — Arlingtoncardinal.com.

Look for the weather slider graphic on the front page of The Cardinal — Arlingtoncardinal.com.

The moon phases for every day of the year (by every minute) are also available on this page.

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Lawrence Krauss explains that nature has a greater imagination than the human mind.

The HARPS-N spectrograph on the Canary Islands’ Telescopio Nazionale Galileo studied Kepler-10c (discovered in 2011) while observing two seasons for the large planet, and recently published data and determinations, which indicate that the planet is actually a rocky world weighing 17 times more than Earth. The finding shows that rocky planets can be formed much sooner than expected. Formation of life is believed to be correlated with planets capable of rock formations.

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A powerful G2 Class Geomagnetic Storm impacted the earth overnight and created a vivid display of the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights over central Minnesota.

This time lapse footage was shot between 3 AM and 4 AM just after the moon had set and before civil twilight that starts just after 4 AM (day not specified b StormChasingVideo.com). KHON 2 reports the northern lights were observed early Sunday morning, June 8, 2014.

Video (without music).

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Video streaming by UstreamLunar Eclipse Recording: NASA broadcast the lunar eclipse with audio from NASA Third Rock and narration of highlights of the eclipse.

Skies cleared to enable night sky viewers to see the lunar eclipse overnight. A slow process with the only negative factor being air temperature in the low 30s and upper 20s, and a wind chill in the low 20s.

The earth’s shadow moved crossed the moon from the left side of the moon. The moon turned red as the shadow covered the moon and the last bright light reflected from the sun disappeared on the right side of the moon. At this point the moon is darkened and turned a reddish hue. At about 3:30 a.m. the earth’s shadow moved to the right and the bright reflected sunlight appeared on the left side of the moon. The bright light gradually moved across the surface of the moon from left to right, returning the moon to a complete bright sphere in its full moon phase.

The “blood moon” is often linked to major historical events, but many enjoyed the rare event with a selfie.

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A series of four lunar eclipses spaced 6 months apart will begin on April 15th, and all of the eclipses will be visible for much of the United States.

The dates are …
April 15, 2014
October 8, 2014
April 4, 2014
September 28, 2015

A tetrad is the term that describes when four total lunar eclipses occur consecutively. They occur in approximately 6-month intervals. There are different types of lunar eclipses — some are partial (a partial shadow crosses the moon), some are penumbral (hardly noticeable because the moon only dims), and a total eclipse when the entire moon is covered by a shadow, but a period of scattered light hits the moon to turn is sunset red or “blood” red. These type of eclipses can arrive in any combination. Sometimes four total eclipses happen consecutively. A period of four total eclipses or a tetrad starts April 15, 2014, but in the Chicago area it actually starts just before midnight on April 14, 2014.

The total eclipse for the Western Hemisphere that begins the Tetrad will begin at 11:53 p.m. CDT April 14, 2014. A darkening on the upper left edge won’t appear until about 12:58 a.m. April 15, 2014 as the earth’s shadow covers the full moon.

At 2:06 a.m. CDT, the eclipse will reach totality, and sunlight that is bent by earth’s atmosphere produces the reddish glow on the moon.

Studying the Eclipse Over the Centuries
Giovanni Schiaparelli discovered that there are eras when tetrads occur frequently, — interrupted by eras when they are rare. This cycle takes about 6 centuries. Antonie Pannekoek (1951) explained this phenomenon and found a period of 591 years. Van den Bergh (1954) found a period of 586 years. This also happens to be an eclipse cycle, but recently Tudor Hughes explained the variation as secular changes in the eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit. The period for occurrence of tetrads is variable and currently is about 565 years.

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]]>http://www.arlingtoncardinal.com/2014/04/tetrad-first-of-four-consecutive-total-lunar-eclipses-begins-midnight-april-1415-tuesdaywednesday/feed/0VIDEO from Multiple Locations: Solar Eclipse Seen in U.S. and Africahttp://www.arlingtoncardinal.com/2013/11/video-from-multiple-locations-solar-eclipse-seen-in-u-s-and-africa/
http://www.arlingtoncardinal.com/2013/11/video-from-multiple-locations-solar-eclipse-seen-in-u-s-and-africa/#commentsMon, 04 Nov 2013 12:22:57 +0000http://www.arlingtoncardinal.com/?p=67160A rare solar eclipse swept across parts of the US, Africa and Europe on Sunday. Described as a “hybrid eclipse,” some areas were witnessing a total blackout with others experiencing a partial version.

Unusual view during sunrise from Key West Florida at 6:35 AM EST Sunday (Eclipse starts just after elapsed time 1:25).

A rare ‘hybrid’ solar eclipse, hailed as ‘the most interesting eclipse of the year,’ has swept across parts of Africa, America and Europe on Sunday. A hybrid eclipse usually starts and ends as an annular event, although it appears as a total eclipse in the middle. According to NASA, this Sunday’s eclipse is even more unique as it starts annular and ends as a total eclipse.

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Tonight’s full moon (August 20, 2013) is known as a Blue Moon because it’s the third full moon in the season.

Not what you thought? The Blue Moon has been incorrectly defined over the years as the second Full Moon in a calendar month.

Actually, a Blue Moon is the third full moon in a four-full-moon season. The usage of the term blue moon to describe the second full moon in one calendar month results from a misinterpretation of the traditional definition of that term in the March 1946 issue of Sky & Telescope.

Full moons occur approximately every 29.5 days — the proper time period for the moon to be facing opposite the sun, and caused by a full circle reflection on the full face of the moon.

The next Blue Moon is calculated to be May 21, 2016. If you want to go by the incorrect definition (second full moon in a calendar month), you will see both those two moons in the calendar month of July 2015 — July 2 and July 31.

The annual August moon has also become known as the Full Sturgeon Moon because of the large fish that can easily be caught during this time of the year, a name that allegedly came from bodies of water including the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain.

The term Blue Moon has nothing to do with the actual color of the moon.

Blue Moon – Chris Isaak.

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